Luke Valentine, a participant in the Big Brother Season 25 house, has been expelled from the competition following an incident where he was recorded using a racial slur on Wednesday morning. As per TMZ , the live broadcast captured Valentine uttering the N-word while conversing with other houseguests, namely Cory Wurtenberger, Hisam Goueli, and Jared Fields, ultimately leading to his removal from the show. “We were in the f**king [inaudible] room, n*****,” said Luke. He tried to hide his mistake by saying “dude,” but the other three people had already heard him use the offensive word.
According to The U.S. Sun , Valentine’s father conveyed to the outlet that despite his disappointing actions, the disqualified contestant is not characterized as a racist. He highlighted that Valentine has numerous Black and biracial family members as evidence to support this perspective.
Luke Valentine from Big Brother 25 has been removed from the competition following his use of the N-word on the show’s 24/7 live feeds. #bb25
— #BB25 BigBrotherHOH (@BBHOH) August 9, 2023
The occurrence, which was shown on the live online feed of the program, was discussed during the episode that aired on Thursday night. This episode featured a mix of excerpts from the live feed and participants’ contemplations regarding recent happenings within the house.”It’s been an emotional 24 hours in the Big Brother house as the houseguests learned that one of their own broke the Big Brother code of conduct and was removed from the game,” the episode saw remarks from the show’s enduring host, Julie Chen Moonves, reports the New York Times.
Subsequent to his use of the slur, Valentine, an illustrator hailing from Florida, promptly offered apologies to the trio of men present in the room, attempting to retract his words. Evidently taken aback, two of the men swiftly exited the scene. Jared Fields, who identifies as Black, remained mostly silent but did respond to Valentine, noting that the racial slur tends to create greater discomfort among white individuals than within the Black community.
Later, Valentine was requested to join a distinct room downstairs, where it appears he was briefed about his eviction. (At that particular moment, cameras were not present in the room.) Following this, Reilly Smedley, a fellow houseguest, promptly informed the remaining cast members that Valentine had been “expelled from the house.” This was due to his breach of the Code of Conduct stemming from his use of a racial slur, according to People .
— v (@ViralMaterialz) August 9, 2023
Thereafter, on Wednesday, CBS , the network responsible for airing the show in the US, issued a statement that conveyed the following: “Luke violated the Big Brother code of conduct, and there is zero tolerance in the house for using a racial slur. He has been removed from the house. His departure will be addressed in Thursday night’s show,” quotes Variety .
Currently, in its 25th season, the reality show Big Brother has a track record of incidents involving racism among its participants. Back in 2019, just before securing victory in Season 21, Jackson Michie was confronted on live television regarding allegations that certain actions he exhibited during the season were racially and sexually insensitive. Although he initially offered a defense, he subsequently expressed remorse and took responsibility. Another example is Aaryn Gries, a contestant from Season 15, who faced questioning from Chen Moonves after being recorded making racist and homophobic comments, according to information from The New York Times .
References:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/arts/television/big-brother-racial-slur.html
https://www.tmz.com/2023/08/09/big-brother-contestant-luke-valentine-n-word-conversation/
https://people.com/big-brother-addresses-luke-valentine-removal-after-his-racial-slur-7629193
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/big-brother-responds-luke-valentine-removal-n-word-1235693712/
https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/8778543/big-brother-season-25-live-cast-schedule-spoilers/